Printing apparatus.



F. C! DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS. I APPLICATION FILED AUG-5.1914.

4 SHEETSSH\EET l- Patenfed Aug. 7,1917.

I Inventor:

F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.5, 1914.

Patented A11 7, 1917.

4 SHEETSSHEET 2.

flwelzzforfiederl F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS- APPLICATION FILED Aus.5,1914.

Patented Aug. 7, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- [I2 yen for F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED Aue.5. 1914.

1,236,153. Patent-ed Aug. 7, 1917.

4 SHEETSSHEET 4.

UNITED STATES OFFICE.

mnnnmcx 0. m, or WASHINGTON, nrs'rnic'r or COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOB r0 monsoonMAILING maonnvnar co., or cna'rranooea, 'rnnnnssnn, a con- POBATION OFTENNESSEE.

To all wlwm'it may concern:

'Be it known. that I, FnEDEBioK C. D01.- oarnn, a citizen of'the UnitedStates, residing at Washington, District of Columbia,

record plates bearin addresses or otheninformation are passe through themachine, and the impressions taken therefrom, and

. [my present invention concerns particulaily means whereby certain ofthe record plates may be selected for printirig and the others skippedin the printing. y my invention it is possible to send the wholelist ofplates through the machine,'but to print from onl certain ofthese'plates accor ing to the di ferent classes in which they belong.

Another feature of my invention relates to selecting mechanism todetermine the kind *or color of the form which is to be fed into themachine by the attendant, thecall for a blue form, for instance,beingindicated by a blue flash light, for a yellow form by a yellow flashlight, and a white form by a white flash light.

Another feature of my invention contem.

plates the selection of values, which the pplates represent, and. theiraccumulation on a register mechanism which also may be employed forprinting the total of the values or numbers which the plates represent.s The invention consists in the features of construction and combinationand arrangement of-parts'hereinafter described and particularly setforth in the appended claims.-

'. Ilsaid machine with some parts omittedand with the mech- In theaccompanying drawings Figure l isa side elevation of a portion of themachine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the Fig. 3 is a detail sectionalview; p

-- Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig.- 3, but

anism in a difi'erent osition;

' Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the arms ofthe bell crank lever;

Fig. 6 is a view of the. other arm of said lever;

Specification of Letters I'atent.

. rnimme arranartrs.

Patented Aug. 7, 1917.

Application .flled August 5, 19M. 1 sem m. 565,238.

7 a detail view ofthe shuttle bar; Fig. 8 is a detail view ofthe recordplate;

Figs. 9 and 110 are views respectively of the back and front sides ofthe record plates In these drawings, 1 indicates the impression barwhich is mounted to slide vertically in the frame, and" is operated froma shaft 2 through arms "3 fixed on said shaft and connected by links 4to cross bars 5 which are connectedwith the vertically'extending rods 6,these rods being connected at their upper ends to the impression bar.The shaft 2. is

rocked; by an arm 7 fixed thereto having a pin 8 to be borne upon by apawl 9, said pawl being pivotally mounted at 10 to one of the arms 11 ofa bell-crank lever, the other arm of which shown at 12 is looselyconnected with the arm 11, and both are loosely mounted on the shaft 2.The arm 11 of the bell crank lever is operated through any suitable linkconnection-as 13 extending to a crank or other elementto which power isapplied in any suitable way. The arm 12 of the bell crank lever isutilized to opcrate the record plate "feed :mechanism, itbeing-understood that these record plates are brought to the impression.point by a step bystep movement from a s'uitable'hopper, the runway forthe said plates being indicated generally at it. This plate feedmechanism may be of variousforms, and the particular form of thismechanism does not constitute a: part of my invention, and I havetherefore". shown it only generally. This mechanism consists in a'linlr'15 operated from an arm16 on a shaft 17, the said shaft being operatedthrougharm 16. it'rom j the lever arm 12 through. what may be termedDu-tri mechanism. This term is coined from the 1 words. duplicate andtriplicate. This mechanism, under the control of the operator, may beset to regulate-the plate feed for making either single, duplicate,triplicate or multiple impressions from the same plate. The arm 12 has aprojection 12. which enters a channel l6 the arm 16 indicated in dottedlines in Fig. 1. The link 15 is connected with a bell crank lever 18which, in turn, through a link 19, connects with a shuttle bar 20 havlngdogs 21 thereon for engaging the plates and feeding them forward onestep at each reciprocation of the shuttle bar. The arm 12 of the bellcrank lever i1-12 engages the arm 16' of the Du-tri mechanism. I referto this Dutri plate feeding mechanism as an example oi any desiredmechanism that may be used for the purpose. The arms 11 and 12 of thebell crank lever, as stated above, are each. loosely mounted on theshaft 2, and they-are connected by toggle links 23, 23, by which, whenthe arm 11 is moved in the arrow direction, the links will move the arm12 in the same direction, and through the connections described the.shuttle bar for feeding the plates will be retracted to get intoposition for a new feed of the plates. This same movement of the bellcrank arm 11, through the pawl 9, will move the impression head down. Onthe reverse movement of the arm 11 the impression bar will rise and thedownward movement of the arm 12 will efl'ect the movement of the platefeed mechanism to feed the plates forward. this movement of the arm 12being due to a spring connection between the arm 11 and the link 23, andI have shown this spring at 25, the purpose being to allow the arm 12 toyield or lag in its movement downwardly should a record-plate becomejammed in its guideway.

Detector mechanism.

The detector mechanism for selecting certain of the plates for printinginvolves a specially constructed series of record plates and mechanismto coiiperate therewith to determine which of the plates shall beprinted as they pass through the machine. Selective. record platesheretofore have been employed, but in my system'I employ the well knownMontague form of one piece embossed record plates and the selectin meansI emboss on the plates, and preferab y I employ the characters of thealphabet or numerals or other alphabetical signs as the selecting means.I have shown, for instance, a row of selecting embossings at X on arecord plate, consisting in this instance as shown in Fig. 8, of thecharacters A, B, C, D, F, and Z, and this will indicate that this platebelongs in a number of different classes and will be printed when thedifferent classes to which it belongs are to be selected and printed.Cooperating with the record plates are contact points, or only a singlepoint may be used, this point or points being indicated at'Y, and beingcarried removably and interchangeably in a holder 26. This holder may beconstructed in various ways, but I prefer to form it of insulating fiberhaving slots or openings for receiving the detector fingers Y. Thesedetector fingers are rubber covered at their exposed portions exceptingtheir extreme ends, which are left bare to contact with the selectingpoints or embossings on the record plates. The holder 26 is carried onstems 27 movable vertically through the bed of the machine at '28, andconnected by a cross pin 29 against which arms 30 may bear, said armsbeing mounted on a rock shaft 31 suitably journaled in a bracket of theframe, and operated through an arm 32 fixed thereon and a link 33 whichis connected with the arm 12 of the bell is connected. with the arm 12of the bell crank lever 1112. The holder 26 is normally pressed upwardlyby a spring 34. The detector consisting of the plate 26 with itsdetector fingers is located one step in advance of the impression point,that is to say, the record plates as they are moved step by step fromtheir hopper to the impression point arrive first at the detectorstation indicated at A in the plan view, Fig. 2, and after resting herethe plates are given another step to the left which brings them to theimpression point. While at the station A each plate is instrumental indetermining whether it will be printed upon or skipped when it arrivesat the next station, t, 6., the impression point. It will be observedthat as the bell crank lever 1l-12 rises, and the impression bardescends, the arms 30, through the link and arm connection 33 and 32,will lower the detector plate and brin a detector finger into contactwith any 0 the contact points or embossings X which may underlie thesame. This will close the circuit to an electro-ma-gnet 36 and this,through its armature 37 and rock shaft 38, will set a latch 39 from theposition shown in full lines in Fig. 3 to that shown in dotted lines insaidfigure. The upward movement of the bell crank lever 11-12 hasbrought the pawl 9 to its uppermost position, and a pin 9' on said pawlnow overlies the slot 40 in the latch 39, this latch having beenadjusted as just stated to the dotted line position. Now when themovement of the parts is reversed and the bell crank moves downwardly oropposite the arrow direction and consequently when the impression bar isrising, the pin 9 of the pawl 9 will enter the slot 40 of the latch 39and in the final part of the movement the pin will come against thelower edge of this slot and therefore the pawl will be tipped so thatits right hand end will be thrown I machine being embossed with theaddress it other.

ment will be transmitted to the shaft 2, and,

the impression baror head will not be moved downwardly. When, however,the reverse movement ust above described is taking place, that is, themovement of the bell crank ever,1112 in. a direction opposite to thearrow, the plate which had been resting at station A has been moved bythe plate feedlng mechanism from said station to the impression pointbelow-the impression bar, but as the impression bar does not move downowing to the setting of the pawl 9 in ineffective. position, noimpression will be made from the plate just mentioned, but on thecontrary on the next cycle this plate will be moved from the impressionpoint toward the discharge point of the machine.

A spring 9 returns the pawl or controller 9 to normal position.

It will be observed that the record plates having the selective deviceembossed thereon are of advantage over any form of plate havingremovable tabs or'other adjustable,

The plate can be made ,of'

selective means. a selective character at the same time that the addressor information vis embossed thereon, that is, while the plate is in thecan be embossed at the same time and by the same machine with thecharacter or charac 'ters which are to classify the plate.

Furthermore, it happens that a customer must be transferred from oneclass to an- To do this, it is simply necessary with my invention toblank out, i. 6., press down or obliterate the selector character andreemboss the plate with the selector character at the proper point toput the cus-' tomer in his proper class. With the em-' bossed selectordevices danger of loss of identity of the plate is prevented.

By employing alphabetical characters or numbers as the selectivedevices, the class or classes to which the plate belongs can be read ata glance. For instance, if the letter a'ap'pears as the selectivecharacter, the plate belongs to the a or first class If 0 appears it canbe seen that it belongs in the third or c class. Each class, therefore,will be designated by its own particular si or combination of signswhich will be di erent from the signs or combination of signs des- Iignating other classes. These signs will not only be distinctive inthemselves, but their location will be distinctive; thus a will 00--cupy the first position; (1 the fourth, and

so on throughout the list of signs, so that the operator, in embossingthe plate, will be able to place the sign in proper position quicklyandcertainly, and the liability of mistake will be reduced.

- Furthermore, the embossed classifying 7 sign can be printed on the'wrapper, en-

' velop, card or other matter, because the said embossed. By reason ofthis the article when printed will have a class indication thereonbywhich it may be identified and treated differently and separately as maybe desired from all printed articles belonging to other classes- Asabove stated, the record plate is of the type known 'asthe Montaguemanufactured under patents of Owens, 939,739, November 9, 1909, and Lee,982,076, January 17, 1911. a

The plate has a main portion with embossed characters thereon, and ithas margins oflset to one side of the plane of the plate by which theplate is guided. The main portion of the plate is elevatedand theprinting characters are thus brought to the proper plane.

The selecting embossings are made in this raised or main part of theplate. These embossings aremade preferably near one edge of theplate,and it will be noticed that the detector plate is so located that itsfingers will extend over the guideway in the table and over thedepressed rolled margin of the plate into position to contact with theselective embossings on the plate. The plate feeder is arranged below'the surface of the table and in'position to engage one of the depressedmargins of the plate.

Reverting to the latch 39, of course it will be understood that when aplate comes along that is to be printed the latch 39 will remain in itsnormal position shown in full l1nes,.because the circuit Wlll not beclosed,

by arranging the s ring 40* tov move the latch 39 tothe dotte lineposition while the magnet will pull the latch into the full lineposition. The arm 11 has a lag 11 to engage the pin, 8 and raisetheimpression head.

Selecting and number items.

.' v In certain classes of work, for instance wherea number of checksare being printed, it is desirable to register the values that the'plates represent on accumulator mechanism,

so that when the list of plates has been run through the machine, thetotal will appear, and an imprint of this total may be made feitheron aseparate slip' or on the record strip or sheet which has just receivedthere- 'on the list of items.

Referring to Figs. 9 to 13, the record plates are adapted to receiveembossing 'X at or near one end thereof, representing numbers of thedesired denominations.

The spaces for receiving the embossings are indicated by the lines Xshown 111 Fig. 9 impressed in the back of the plate when it is formed. Ishow as an example five columns representing units, tens, hundreds,etc., and each column havin nine spaces representing digits running rom1 to 9. I have indicated the position of these digits by the numbers 1to 9. Supposing the plate is to represent a value of one hundred andeighty-six dollars and twenty-five cents, the embossings would appear inthe positions indicated in Figs. 9 and 10. Cooperatin with such a plateI employ a contact hea having as shown in Figs. 12, 13 and 14 a fiberbody 26 supported on fiber posts as before described and pressed up bysprings, as indicated. In this fiber plate a series of contacts 42 aremounted. These consist of pins having enlarged heads 44 and nuts orcollars 45 screwed on their lower ends. A s ring 46 presses each pinnormally downwar this spring resting against the contact plate 47 fixedin the opening in the fiber plate, and against the lower collar or nut45.. The pin 42 is held by the spring with its lowerend and the face ofthe collar or nut about flush with the lower face ofthe fiber contacthead, the head 44 of the pin acting as a stop to limit the downwardmovement of the pin. There is a row of these pins for each order ofdigits, units, tens, hundreds, etc., and each row contains nine pinsrepresenting digits from 1 to 9 inclusive. Cooperating with these pinsthere is a series of slides 48, one slide for each order of digits. Inthe example shown there are five rows of digits, and consequently thereare five slides 48. These are adapted to move in ways formed in thefiber plate and just above the plane of the upper ends of the pins whenthese are in normal position. The slides are confined in their groovesby a glass plate 49 fixed to the fiber plate. Each of these slides has arack 50 connected with an item wheel 51, there being one such wheel foreach slide, and the connection may be made in various ways. In theparticular construction shown this connectionis made through a gearwheel 52 carrying a pawl 53 engagin a ratchet wheel 54 connected withthe num erwheel.

The slides are moved to the right, Fig. 12, or in the direction of thearrow, Fig. 11, to be set u in positions corresponding to .the values orthe di its which are selected. Fig. 11 shows the slides in set upposition resting against the stops 44 which have been elevated by comingin contact with the embossed points on the record plate, this being dueto the depression of the head carrying all the pins. Only, those pinswill be raised which come in contact with the embossed points. Theslides 48 are moved to set-up position by electro-magnets 54 which, whenrise and fall as the contact head moves up and down. The magnet isenergized through suitable circuit connections by the contact pins ofthe contact head coming against the embossed selecting points on theplate, and the slides will thus be moved to different degrees accordingto the position of the stop pins raised in the contact head. On themovement of the slides to set-up position shown in Fig. 11, no movementof the number wheels takes place. For restoring the slides to normalposition and therebytransferring their values to the number wheels, thelevers 56 are provided with arms 59 overlying a pin 60 carried by thecross bar 61 of the impression frame,so that when the impression framerises the slides will be moved and the number wheels will be turnedaccording to the values of the digits to be added. 7

An sort of carrying mechanism common in a ding machines may be employedfor carrying tens from one order to the next higher order and any sortof accumulator mechanism may be used, such not forming a part of myinvention excepting in a broad sense.

The mechanism just described for selecting numbers may be employed inthe same organization with the means for selecting and printing onlycertain of the plates.

The counting wheels may be located either at the'front or rear of therunway.

In respect to the circuits in Figs. 11 to 14, each series of-contacts 44will be connected upwith a magnet 54 before mentioned, there being onethesemagnets for each order of digits which it is desired to count. Thestop and contact pins 44 of each order are connected togetherelectrically in any suitable manner, as by making the seat 47 in theform of a strip in which all the stops of one order are seated, thisstrip being in circuit with the magnet, but there is a separate circuitfor each order of digits. When any one of the contacts 44 of eitherorder of digits contacts with the selector embossing on the recordplate, the magnet will be energized and the slide 48 will be moved untilit is arrested by the elevated contact stop 44.

The circuit wires are indicated diagrammatically in Figs. 12. 13 and 14at w and 3 It will be clear that the mechanism of Figs. 1 to 8 forcontrollingthe impressions from detector mechanisms of which the plateforms a part and the counting'mechanism of Figs. 9 to 14; of which theprinting plate also forms a part are" to housed in the same machine, itbeing obvious that the detector orcontact mechanism willbe disposedalong the runway at different points.

The printing plate 1767' se-is not claimed herein as this has been madethe subject matter of application #145,480, filed J anuary 30, 1917. Iclaim as my invention:

1. In a printing apparatus, a table having runways below the surfacethereof, an impression member operating to and from the table,andprintmg plates having a main portion exposed between the runways anwith depressed margins in the runways, said plates having printingcharacters embossed from their exposed main portions and having selectorembossings also raised from said exposed main portions, and detectormeans coiiperating with the selector embossings, substantially asdescribed,

2. In combination in. a printing apparatus, a series of record-plateseach having a raised main portion and depressed margins, a guidewayreceiving the depressed margins, said record plates having embossedprinting characters and selectors extending up from said plate thereon,and detector means having detector fingers reaching across the depressedmargin of the plate and over'the main body of the plate to engage onlythe projecting selector with means for" operating the detector means,substantially as described.

3. In, combination in a printing apparatus, a series of record plateseach having a raised mainportion and depressed margins, a guidewayreceiving the depressed margins, said record plates having embossedprinting characters andembossed selectors thereon, and detector meansconsisting of a holder having detector fingers reaching across the.depressed margin of the plate and over the main, body of theplate to.en-'

gage the embossed selector with means for operating the holder, saidholder being located to one side of the path of the record plates andhaving movement vertically, substantially'as described.

4. In combination in printing apparatus,

an impression head, a series ofrecord plates, some of. which haveselecting means thereon, arockingarm, means for rocking the arm, ashifting controller or pawl carried thereby, a rock shaft, a connectionfrom said rock shaft to the impression head, means on the rock shaft tobe engaged or disengaged by the controller, and means controlled by theselector means on the record plate to set the controller in position tocause said head to make or miss an impression, substantially asdescribed.

5. In combination in a printing apparatus, a series of record platessome having selecting means, a rock shaft, an arm loosely mounted on therock shaft, means for oscillating the arm, a pawl pivoted to the arm,said pawl engaging with or disengaging from a part on said rock shaft,an impression head, connections from the rock shaft for operating theimpression head, a latch the two-armed lever, substantially asdescribed.

7. In combination an impression head, a two-armed lever, a shiftablecontroller mounted on said lever, connections controlled by thecontroller for moving the impression head, record plates some havingselector means, a detector cooperating with said selector means todetermine the making of impressions through the controller, a connectionfor operating the detector from the two-armed lever, a plate feederoperated from said two-armed lever, and a yielding connection betweenthe arms of the lever to stantially as described.

8. In combination impression means, a table having a straight runway,individual record plates having printing characters, feed means formoving the record plates seriatim and step by step along the runway 'toand past the impression point, selector means on the record platesindicating numbers, number wheels, and mechanism for antomaticallyoperating said number wheels,

' yield on failure of the plates to feed, subsaid mechanism beingcontrolled by the selector means, substantially as described.

9. In combination impression means, a table having a straight runway,individual record plates having printing characters and selector meansindicating numbers or digits of numbers, means for feeding the platesalong the runway step by step, number.

wheels, a contact head having members to contact with the selector meanson the record plate, and means controlled by the said contacts foractuatin the number wheels in accordance with t e values represented bythe selector means with which. contact is made, substantially as.described.

10. In combination an impression head,

individual record plates bearing printing characters and selectordevices,'a contact head having movable contact devices to be set byengagement with said selector devices, digit wheels, actuators for saiddigit wheels, means for setting the actuators up against the contactdevices as adjusted into stopping position by engagement. with theselector devices, and means for returning the actuators to normalposition to thereby transfer the values onto the digit wheels.

11. In combination. impression means, in dividual record plates, bearingprinting characters and selector devices, a contact head having movablemembers to engage the selector devices and be set thereby, said membersacting as circuit closers and as stops, number wheels, actuatorstherefor to be arrested in set-up position by said stops,electro-magnetic means for operating the said actuators, saidelectro-magnetic means being controlled by a circuit made by engagementof the movable members of the contact head with the selector devices onthe plates, and means for restoring the actuators to normal position tothereby transfer the values onto the number wheels, substantially asdescribed.

12. In combination an impression head, a. table, a plate feeder formoving printing plates along said table, an oscillating arm, a. membermounted co'axially with the arm, a pawl shiftable on the arm and when inone position engaging the said member to move the same, a connectionbetween said member and the impression head to move the latter when thepawl is in engagement with said member, and a member to set the awl anddetector connections extendin to tie printing plate for controlling theast mentioned member, substantially as described.

13. In combination an impression head, a table having a runway forprinting plates, a rocking lever consisting of two arms coaxiallymounted, a connection for operating one of the arms, toggle linkconnections between the arms, connections leading from. one of the armsfor feeding the printing plates, a rocking member coaxially mounte withthe arm of the lever, a connection between said rocking member and theimpression head, a shifting pawl on one of the arms for operating saidrocking member, and detector means coiiperating with the printing platesfor controlling the shifting pawl, the said toggle link connectionbetween the arms allowing one of the arms to yield in. respect to theother to eliminate the plate feeding function should a plate becomejammed in the runway, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK C. DOLCATER.

Witnesses:

WALTER DONALDSON, HENRY E. Coornn.

